Publication Category: Church in the World

In his reflections on theology and politics, Catholic theologian William T Cavanaugh has focused attention on how Christian liturgical practices embody and inform — or should embody and inform — Christian political witness, His book Torture and Eucharist: Theology, Politics and the Body of Christ (Blackwell) is about the Roman Catholic Church’s responses to the …

So God created (the human creature] in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and till the earth and subdue it; and have dominion . . . over every living thing that …

Some months ago the New Yorker carried a “Millennium Travel Advisory" — a special advertising section concerning a "Global Party" "Talk about the mega super-event of our times," it said. “Will you be on the ultimate New Year’s Eve, when the big door swings open on a new era?" The ad touted destinations from Nantucket …

In the first place, we must admit that it is difficult for a Christian to talk about himself. Not that it is difficult to lay oneself bare (especially in these days of literary exhibitionism). But a Christian ought to know how little interest attaches to him as a person. And he ought to know that …

For better than two decades the consensus in theology and ethics has been that we have no consensus. Roger Shinn announced this fact before most people had noticed it ("The Shattering of the Theological Spectrum," C&C, September 30, 1963), but the years since have borne him out. At the American Theological Society’s plenary session last …

Book Review: The Quiet Hand of God: Faith-Based Activism and the Public Role of Mainline Protestantism. Edited by Robert Wuthnow and John H. Evans, University of California Press, 430 pp. Despite the size and historic importance of mainline churches, say sociologists Robert Wuthnow and John Evans, “their activities and the ways in which they …

In seminary I read certain biblical stories not only for their theological significance but also for their strategic value in political action. I couldn’t resist the temptation to do strategic exegesis; for example, of Nathan’s manipulating David into condemning himself, of St. Paul’s flattering defense before King Agrippa, of Micaiah’s gutsy predictions to King Ahab, …

Reformation today is an issue raised every now and then among Protestants. Is not the church always in need of Reformation? Are we not heirs of an “unfinished Reformation”? The 500th anniversary celebration of Martin Luther’s birth is November 10, 1983. Meanwhile, Luther birthday celebrations are being planned everywhere in Protestantism — some very official …

As one surveys the surge — indeed, the explosion — of human rights laws and activities over the past 40 years, one has to ask whether the overall level of public morality has been improved. The question is cosmic and probably unanswerable. But one of the many factors to be considered is the potential long-range …

In the year 1911, as he penned the final pages of his famous Social Teachings of the Christian Churches, Ernst Troeltsch was certain that Christianity as he knew it could not “master” modernity. The key to understanding Christian faith in general, Troeltsch thought, lay in understanding its practical social expressions. And in all the history …

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